It's raining sops for tea community

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, Jan 23: As the assembly election nears, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is turning out to be a Santa Claus for the tea community, bestowing goodies right and left. After announcing a commission for the development of the tea community, a housing scheme, electronic meters, coaching centres etc, the Chief Minister will on Sunday unveil a scheme to allot land pattas to the people of the community. Around 4,000 families of the community will be given pattas during a rally to be organized at Dibrugarh on Sunday. This will be the first phase of the scheme. The scheme will cover the entire tea community phase-wise, officials said.

Besides, Gogoi will also roll out 200 new buses. They will primarily run from tea garden areas to towns. The service will be free for students and senior citizens of the tea community. The Assam Tea Development Corporation and the ASTC has entered into an understanding for the scheme. "Other parties only talk about the tea community. They have done nothing for the community. It is the Congress which is concerned and has actually worked for their development. Recently, the Chief Minister has allocated Rs 100 crore to the Assam Tea Development Council (ATDC)," Cabinet minister Atuwa Munda said. The Congress, which is already in a sticky wicket in the wake of the BJP wave since the Lok Sabha elections, is desperate to win back its traditiol vote bank - the tea community. In the last Lok Sabha elections, the party had lost the two key seats - Jorhat and Dibrugarh - domited by the community.